Taking a Critical Lens to Large-Scale Population Data as a Mirror and Window for Studying Society (Poster 8)

• In Event: Exploring Critical Data Literacy in K–12 Social Studies

Abstract

Calls for greater critical data literacy have grown urgent as ever more aspects of our lives are captured and shaped by data. We consider critical data literacy to involve statistical literacy as well as attention to the ethical and sociopolitical dimensions of collecting, interpreting, and communicating with data (Louie et al, 2022a, 2022b.) Social studies classrooms can potentially play an important role in helping students develop critical data literacy. National guidelines suggest that educators should incorporate the use of data and statistical tools in K-12 social studies learning (NCSS, 2013; Shreiner, 2020). A key goal of social studies education is to support the study of topics such as “Individuals, Groups, and Institutions” and “Power, Authority, and Governance” (NCSS, n.d., para. 5)—topics that undergird critical perspectives of society and data.
We developed a set of 15-hour curriculum modules to promote critical data literacy among students in high-school non-AP mathematics classes with high proportions of students from historically marginalized groups. An early version of one module, Investigating Immigration to the U.S., was implemented by a social studies teacher in two grade-10 U.S. History I classes. The module contains lessons in which students confront a series of claims about immigrants, drawn from various sources (Denhart, 2017; Learning for Justice, 2011/2017). Claims include: Are there more immigrants in the U.S. than ever before? Are all immigrants from Mexico? Are immigrants less likely than U.S.-born individuals to participate in the labor force?
To interrogate these claims, students analyze large-scale person-level data from the U.S. decennial census and the American Community Survey using the online tool CODAP. They discuss and write responses to prompts such as: Predict how the percentage of the U.S. population who were immigrants in 1920 compares to the percentage in 2017 and explain your reasoning; What questions do past and recent levels of immigration to the U.S. raise in your mind? Using qualitative coding techniques (Corbin & Strauss, 2015), we analyze responses to module prompts from participating students (n=15) and data from two hour-long interviews with the participating social studies teacher to address the following question: In what ways may quantitative data investigations in social studies classes support students’ critical understandings of society and data?
Preliminary analyses of student responses suggest that for some, large-scale population data patterns reflected their own prior understandings of social conditions (“We predicted right”). In other cases, the data served less as a mirror and more as a window (Bishop, 1990) to new views of society, prompting critical questions about underlying social forces (“I wonder why there was a change in where most immigrants came from between 1920-2017”). The data investigations also prompted critical questions about the data themselves (“I wonder how they get the data from and also if they know the people that they have the info from”). This poster will explore these findings and how the participating teacher viewed opportunities to build students’ critical perspectives of society and data through the module’s activities.

Authors

• Josephine Louie, Education Development Center, Inc.

• Jennifer Stiles, Education Development Center, Inc.

• Emily Fagan, Education Development Center, Inc.

• Beth L. Chance, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

• Soma Roy, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo